In August 1972, Vignelli's diagrammatic design for the
New York City Subway map appeared on the walls of subway stations and became a significant example of
Modernist information design. Vignelli regarded the map as one of his notable works.
Origin of the map The origins of the map lie in the problems of the previous decade. In the mid-1960s, the
New York City Transit Authority (TA) was facing unprecedented difficulties in delivering information to its riders due to: • Inconsistent and out-of-date signage that still referred to the old operating companies (
IRT,
BMT,
IND) long after they had been subsumed under a single public authority. • An influx of 52 million visitors for the
1964 New York World's Fair (April 1964 to October 1965) highlighted shortcomings in wayfinding information for public transportation in New York City. • Structural changes to the subway network (costing $100 million) reduced bottlenecks, in particular, the
Chrystie Street Connection (approved in 1963, expected 1965, opened at the end of 1967), effectively merging two of the three historical networks. The TA responded by creating the role of Director of Public Information and Community Relations and hired former newspaper reporter Len Ingalls as its Chief of Publicity. In his later years, Vignelli praised Ingalls for being a very good client, which Vignelli often said was the most important factor in the success of a design project. Ingalls began an overhaul of both signage and the subway map.
Mildred Constantine, curator of design at the
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is credited with putting Ingalls in touch with Vignelli, who was then working at
Unimark International's New York office. In the Spring of 1966, the TA engaged Unimark to redesign the subway signage and review the ongoing changes to the map. Vignelli teamed up with
Robert Noorda, another Unimark co-founder, to create a system of signage that the TA adopted and that endures in every New York subway station today. However, the TA did not follow up on Vignelli's preliminary study of the map as the agency was already at the testing stage of its map design.
The 1970s Vignelli map The TA's new map, released in 1967, used Raleigh D'Adamo's principle of color-coding for the first time, but it suffered from what Vignelli called "fragmentation" and was not well received. The following year, the
Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) was created to centralize operations of other New York City-area transit systems.
William J. Ronan was named as chair and wanted to create a modern brand image for the new entity. By 1970, Unimark's signage project was nearly finished, having created the
New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual. Vignelli approached Ronan with a mock-up showing his concept of a map for
lower Manhattan. Ronan approved it, and in July 1970, the TA awarded Unimark a contract to design a new map for the system. The design was developed by Unimark's Joan Charysyn under Vignelli's design direction. In April 1971, Vignelli left Unimark to set up Vignelli Associates. By this time, the map was almost complete but was subject to corrections and modifications requested by Raleigh D'Adamo, who was now Head of the Office of Inspection and Review at the MTA. The changes were carried out by Charysyn, who also oversaw the printing of the map. The map was unveiled by Ronan on August 4, 1972, at a ceremony in the
57th Street and Sixth Avenue station. After handing the map design over to MTA in 1972, Unimark and Vignelli had no further control over the project. Six further editions with extensive changes were produced between 1973 and 1978. In 1974, Ronan was replaced by David Yunich as MTA chairman. Yunich was a former executive at
Macy's department store, and explicitly intended to "sell" the subway to riders. In 1975, he recruited his former Macy's colleague Fred Wilkinson to form the Subway Map Committee with a mandate to design a map to replace Vignelli's. The next year
John Tauranac was made chair of the committee, which concluded in June 1979 with the launch of a more geographically accurate map using a trunk-based color scheme designed by
Michael Hertz Associates. The Hertz map replaced the Vignelli map for the next 46 years until the MTA released a
variant of the Vignelli map in 2025.
The 2000s Vignelli map At the end of 2007, Mark Rozzo, an editor at ''
Men's Vogue'' magazine, invited Vignelli to submit a commemorative edition of his map for inclusion in a 'design classics' edition of the magazine. The team at Vignelli Associates welcomed the invitation, as they had been considering how to re-design the map for some time. Massimo Vignelli, Yoshiki Waterhouse, and Beatriz Cifuentes worked together to build a new, up-to-date map from scratch. Besides the general principle of a systematic and minimalist design, they specifically set out to create a map that would preserve spatial relations between stations. For example, if one station is east of another station above ground, those locations must be reflected on the map, alleviating one of the most persistent criticisms of the 1972 map. Their wholly new map was released in the May 2008 edition of ''Men's Vogue.'' The magazine sold signed prints of the new map for $300 to benefit charity. All 500 signed prints were sold within hours of hitting the stands on May 1, 2008. In 2011, the MTA began to look at ways of displaying service disruptions, due to weekend engineering works, in a visual format. They invited Vignelli to develop a digital version of the 2008 map. It was released under the title of "
The Weekender" on the MTA website on September 16, 2011. Since then it has undergone several revisions but is still in use today with weekly updates of service changes.
Super Bowl map The last map in which Vignelli was involved was a special transit map, designed by Yoshiki Waterhouse at Vignelli Associates, for
Super Bowl XLVIII. It was commissioned by the New York/New Jersey Super Bowl Committee for the February 2, 2014, match at
MetLife Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The map brought in several innovations: • For the first time, the MTA produced an all-in-one transit map that included both New York and New Jersey lines. • The map also included the MTA's
Metro-North Railroad and
Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit lines, and Amtrak lines, all in the consistent visual language of the Vignelli map. • In addition to an online version, the MTA issued a Vignelli map on paper for the first time since 1979. Paper maps were passed out to spectators and quickly became collectables. • Also for the first time, a Vignelli map included
topographic features (the MetLife Stadium, the Prudential Center, and the Super Bowl Boulevard). == Recognition and legacy ==